TUYA alarms over LCC concession in QuarduGboni

The head of the National Executive Committee of Tusu United Youth Association ValayeeV.Dukuly has strongly objected to plan by the Liberia Cocoa Corporation or LCC to take over 6,000 hectares of land in QuarduGboni District, Lofa County.

Mr. Dukuly said it will be detrimental to the residents of QuarduGboni, many of whom are farmers and traders were the LCC to plant cocoa on the land for40 years subject to expansion, having previously signed an agreement with the citizenry of SazanortTown in the same district for the sole purpose of carrying on a pilot project.

Addressing a news conference recently in Doe Community, Montserrado County the TUYA leader indicated that citizens of QuarduGboni District in 2014 vehemently and unanimously rejected the concession on several occasions.

He recalled that on September 30, 2014 the citizens petitioned the Legislature to actually trash or ignore the LCC Concession agreement, adding that on the 15th of November 2014 approximately fifteen thousand (15,000) residents from the district met in Samodu Town, the district headquarters and presented a resolution to a committee appointed by Vice President Joseph N. Boakai and headed by Dr. ZayzayZubah of the Ministry of Agriculture, expressing their opposition to the concession.

Mr. Dukuly continued that the citizens in their numbers again assembled at the same venue on 27 March this year and reaffirmed their earlier position on the Liberia Cocoa Corporation concession agreement with the Government of Liberia.

He said giving the aforesaid situation to see the concession agreement resurfacing at the National Legislature barely a week after the recusal of House Speaker J. Alex Tyler sends out a message that it was not all about someone wishing to engage in agricultural activities in QuarduGboni District.

According to him, following careful analysis of the enter saga surrounding the concession, it was observed that negotiation procedure contradicted section one (1) of the concession agreement which states that an open and inclusive process, conducted in the native language of the participants, for the exchange of information, ideas and viewpoints about potential benefits and impacts of the project contemplated under the agreement be done and that the parties involved shall strive for full disclosure of relevant information in advance of any decision to be taken as part of the Community Consultation.

He pointed out that to their utmost surprise, the agreement surfaced at the lower house of the legislature without iota information reaching the citizens of QuarduGboni District. Mr. Dukuly is meanwhile calling on government to trash the concession agreement, asserting that an attempt to forcefully impose LCC on the residents of QuarduGboni, will leave them with no other choice but to resist by all means available within the confines of the Law of Liberia.

When contacted via mobile phone, the Public Relations Officer for the LCC, Mohammed D.K. Kanneh said he reserves all comments. 

By Zee Roberts